Fox hunting – a secret deal with the police

This made Channel 4 news on March 4th 2024.  It is actually fairly old news (but all credit to C4 for running it) and is extensively covered in Animal Wild, but this is the story of the Warwickshire Hunt who appealed against a Community Protection Notice, a court order, issued in an attempt to mitigate the local chaos they were regularly causing, especially on the roads, including out of control hounds delaying an ambulance on its way to an emergency.  Instead a clandestine protocol between the hunt and the police was agreed which in essence not only permits but assists the hunt in carrying on just as before and is in no way legally binding. 

A recent hunt included the presence of as many as 100 horses.  The relevant Rural Crime Team was sidelined altogether.  This was denied by the police but there is an evidentiary e-mail.  Local MP Matt Western has been inundated with complaints from his constituents who feel abandoned and worry greatly about the safety of their pets, but even he can get nowhere in spite of writing to the Home Secretary, the Environment Department and the Chief Constable, claiming a dangerous precedent for policing generally.  Where is the due and democratic process in all this?  The police declined to comment and the Chief Constable refused to be interviewed.  Joint Hunt Master Lizzie Sinden was interviewed however.  She was asked whether she thought that the public had a right to know about such deals.  She began to shake her head, there was a short, awkward pause, then she asked, “Do they need to know?”